Hi I'm Jenny Rae, the managing director of Management Consulted, and I'm back today to talk about networking.
One of my favorite topics.
And specifically today I am going to talk about a networking map.
One of the things that I am going to highlight is just how everything leads into a standard
culminating point for networking.
And, as I have mentioned before, networking has a real strategy to it, and if you follow
if you follow a process, which we have laid out in our networking bible, you are going
to be successful.There is no doubt about it.
And that is one of the reasons why I love networking and I love what we have put together on networking.
Because it is something totally different and also very very helpful, and very practical for a lot of people.
Breaking into consulting is challenging, networking is one of the best ways to do it.
So what I am going to walk through today are four things that are important for you to
keep in mind when you're building your networking plan, and four tools that you are going to use.
And one of them in particular is what everything is leading to.
So let give a start with the first tool.
The first tool is Linkedin.
And Linkedin, as many of you may know, is a very popular platform where you can share a lot of information.
Linkedin is not my favorite way to connect with people, I don't love receiving emails on Linkedin.
In fact, in many situations I think it is a little bit creepy to receive information
on Linkedin from somebody who I don't know.
Because it means, not only are they contacting me, but also that they have done a lot of
research about me beforehand.
So, my favorite way, when I was at the consulting firms, and also now, to be contacted is not through Linkedin.
I would always prefer to be contacted directly.
So, the next thing that I want to talk about are ways that you can contact people directly.
The first is through email – and email is by far your best tactic.
Now when I talked about Linedin, what I talked about was, yes it's great that you're on there,
but I don't want to be contacted through Linkedin.
However, Linkedin can be a fantastic tool to use to get the email of somebody who is
inside a consulting firm.
So, in general, I would be happy if somebody did research of me on Linkedin, but then emailed me directly.
Many consulting firms have very standard email monikers.
It is very easy to figure out, once you know the first and last name of someone, what their
email is going to be when you put it into the formula.
And so, it is up to you to be really intelligent about doing research for people behind the
scenes using a tool like Linkedin, and then converting that to email.
Another way that is really beneficial that you can do this by approaching people at info
sessions, and even just by taking down their names at info sessions.
For those of you who are early on in your college or your MBA career, it's really beneficial
to go to information sessions before you're even targeted.
So for example, if the information session is really targeting at the junior audience
or senior audience in undergrad.
Then you want to go when you are a sophomore, because what you can do, is you can collect
the information of people who are speaking.
You can contact them directly and build a relationship so that you will be one step
ahead of everyone who is just trying to rush them when they are in the actual information session.
You can also get cards at information sessions, and a lot of people will pass them out, and
you can email people directly based on this as well.
There is a final way that it is helpful to get email, and this just falls into the straight-up
email bucket, which is you can google someone, and you can put their email moniker into google.
So, when you are laying out a way to find their email address, you can definitely build that all together.
When you are approaching someone, whether you approach them by email, which is preferred,
or you start with the info session, or you start with Linkedin, or you do those in any
combination – the ultimate goal is to get to the middle of the pyramid here.
The middle of the pyramid is the call.
If you exchange information with somebody by email, it's likely that they will answer
questions – but that is not building a relationship.
Building a relationship is when you set up a fifteen to thirty minute informational interview,
and you're able to really impress them during that time.
I'm going to talk about informational interviews in a separate video, but specifically what
I am talking about there is driving all of your communication to a quick call with the
person, so that you can have a really enjoyable time with them and impress them during the call.
So, email is pretty critical as a way of reaching out, it is the way that most consultants prefer to be reached.
you can to research in many ways, and then finally, ultimately you want to drive to the call.
Now what I want to talk about is the calendar for when this should happen, and I am going
to specifically going to lay it out for a number of different areas.
This isn't just for networking, its actually your strategy calendar for your entire application process.
And the one that I am going to talk through is one that is for a standard, full time recruiting
process – which is the busiest time of year for consulting firms, fo both experienced
hires and for straight-up on campus hires.
So, here we go.
We are going to walk through this.
Basically the research of the consulting industry, which includes researching contacts should
start, if the process for interviews actually starts in October, it should start in May.
So, many months beforehand.
And you need to be doing research of the consulting industry right from the very beginning, all the way through.
Networking should start in June or July, and continue in August and September, but you
really should be having informational calls with people – preferably before recruiting season even starts.
Then you are going to go through identifying your target firms and application states.
So really using the networking process, not just to answer transactional questions, but
actually build tailored programs and applications to each of your favorite firms.
In addition, you want to begin preparing your Resume and Cover letter.
Your resume should be pretty standard across firms, your Cover Letter needs to be tailored
– networking is really critical for the cover letter.
Then you want to begin to . prepare for case interviews – case interviews vary by firm,
so understanding the firms that you have the strongest connections with can help you differentiate
your case interview practice process.
Then you want to start attending info sessions, they are hopefully not the first ones that
you have been to, but it's still great to get insights and contacts at those information sessions.
Finally, you want to drop your resume, and then hopefully at that point be really ready
for the interview, and you can begin preparing for the FIT interview process.
Then, ultimately you've got your interviews about one month later, and then the offers come out.
Hopefully those offers, one of them will be yours.
So, as you go through this process, it's really essential to understand that many people currently
start their networking process the day that the info session happens.
And you are more than half way through what should have been happening at that point.
So, if you can use your Summer ahead of time to your strategic advantage, and even time
before that to both research contacts, and also plan and prepare – you are going to
be ready and you are going to be able to use networking to your greatest benefit.
We hope that you have enjoyed this video, and we've got lots more like it, as well as
tons of information on networking at managementconsulted.com